Amos NATTINI...

from The Divine Comedy

Satty... Terrestrial Esoteric

Terrestrial Esoteric

Soft, features come together

particles of air splint just the other side of light

rhomboid wave lengths stopped at square

your rhythm, my bones

emotional stumblebum gestures brave

unwaivering, you beguile

you, sweet passion fruit calamity

mercurial, unwise, but your love burns no less than mine

obscure before the looking glass

shoals, etherial, fine

you are, voyager, mine

you are the first thought that comes to me

as I arc above our world

your tender, blue-flecked abstraction

drifting through curved space

through a subdivision of stars

etheral, fine

you, voyager, mine.

Justin Lee Brown 2009

Wilfred Satty

Satty... Alone...Edgar Allan Poe

Alone

From childhood's hour I have not been

As others were — I have not seen

As others saw — I could not bring

My passions from a common spring —

From the same source I have not taken

My sorrow — I could not awaken

My heart to joy at the same tone —

And all I lov'd — I lov'd alone —

Then — in my childhood — in the dawn

Of a most stormy life — was drawn

From ev'ry depth of good and ill

The mystery which binds me still —

From the torrent, or the fountain —

From the red cliff of the mountain —

From the sun that 'round me roll'd

In its autumn tint of gold —

From the lightning in the sky

As it pass'd me flying by —

From the thunder, and the storm —

And the cloud that took the form

(When the rest of Heaven was blue)

Of a demon in my view —

Edgar Allan Poe 1829

Satty from the Illustrated Edgar Allan Poe 1976

Jindrich Styrsky...Sexuálnì Nocturno

The first book to be illustrated by the Czech Surrealist Jindrich Styrsky.

All little girls improvise...Paula Rego...

My favourite Paula Rego illustrations for Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre

Come to me 2002

Loving Bewick 2002

Follies...

Anonymous - ca 1850

Aubrey Beardsley... Volpone 1898

1898. In addition to designing several full-page illustrations and numerous initial letters, Beardsley also intended to write an extended critical essay, by way of introduction to an edition of Volpone to be published by Leonard Smithers. Volpone proved to be Beardsley’s last work, however, and he had completed only a handful of the designs before his death. The book appeared posthumously, with Robert Ross’s “Eulogy of the Artist”; in the event, the essay was written by Vincent O’Sullivan. Smithers printed Beardsley’s perceptive notes on the play, together with the ravishing illustration of Volpone Adoring his Treasure, as a prospectus for the book.

The Courts of Love

The courts of love are fair to see
Built of shining masonry
Quaintly carved in olden day
By the fairies’ hands they say.
Underneath the arching trees
Gentle lovers take their ease
Chanting songs of Ladye Love,
Whilst the birds which flit above
Make the golden courts to ring
With the joyous song they sing.
“Love is Lord of everything”.

Maidens in the Month of May
Watch the Knights who ride that way
Who for noble deeds and name
Are received with fair acclaim.
At the court they linger long,
Rest is sweet and Love is strong.
Then at quiet eventide
Lovers through the gardens glide
Speaking softly, whilst a ring
Of twilight fairies strangely sing
“Love is Lord of everything”.

* 1891 Presumed to have been composed by Beardsley himself, these twenty-two lines—somewhat in the manner of the Pre-Raphaelite poet William Allingham’s archly pretty fairy songs—come from a page of illuminated verses embellished with two illustrations and other decorative designs. The original was one of a number of early drawings which Beardsley’s school master, A. W. King attempted to sell for him. This sheet, one of the few actually sold, was purchased by Richard Haworth, a local picture-framer and “art-dealer”, and one of King’s acquaintances.

Hypnerotomachia Poliphili...in dreams...

'Each one was divided at the groin, whereupon her fleshy thighs separated.'

 

The enigmatic, polyglot Hypnerotomachia Poliphili has fascinated architects and historians since its publication in 1499. Part fictional narrative and part scholarly treatise, richly illustrated with wood engravings, the book is an extreme case of erotic furor, aimed at everything -- especially architecture -- that the protagonist, Poliphilo, encounters in his quest for his beloved, Polia. Among the instances of the book's manifesto-like character is Polia's tirade defending the right of women to express their own sexuality, probably the first sustained argument of this type, which lifts the book's erotic theme from the realm of ribaldry to the more daring one of sexual politics.printed by Aldus Manutius Venice: 1499

 

 

Eros and the Metaphor of the Architectural Body

 
The name Poliphilo means "lover of many things." The name Polia, in turn, means "many things." And to be sure, Poliphilo does love many things besides Polia. ...But he loves architecture most: he loves it as much as he loves Polia, in the same carnal way. One after the other, the buildings in the book become objects of desire, metaphors for Polia’s solido corpo.

Indeed, among the dreamlike features of the buildings is the inordinate feeling of happiness they impart to the beholder. Poliphilo characterizes the marble of the triumphal arch as "virginal," the veinless marble of another surface as "flawless," which is the sma eterm he uses to describe the skin of a certain nymph. Upon seeing the buildings, Poliphilo feels "extreme delight," "incredible joy," "frenetic pleasure and cupidinous frenzy". The buildings fill him with the highest carnal pleasure" and with "burning lust." He loves them not just because they are beautiful to behold, but also because they are fragrant and agreeable to touch. He partakes of their pleasures with all his senses. In front of the frieze of a sleeping nymph, he cannot keep from plcing his hand on her knees and "fondling and squeezing" them, nor can he resist pressing his lips to her breasts and sucking them.

The sexuality of the buildings Poliphilo loves is polymorphic. He approvingly describes the column of a certain temple as "hermaphrodotic," because they combine male and female characteristics. The altar of Bacchus is made of darkly veined marble especially selected to express the virility of that deity, and it is carved with a grat phallus "rigidly regorous." Above the reclining nude body of a sleeping nymph leers a naked satyr with a watchful eye and an erect penis.

This erotization of architecture comes to its logical conclusion. In three cases, Poliphilo manages to locate the appropriate orifice through which he can engage in sexual congress with particular buildings. His response, always described at length and in great detail, is sheer coital ecstacy. In one case, the effect on the building is mutual. Liane Lefaivre

 

"The Nymph Polia perceiuing well the change of my colour and blood comming in more stranger sort than Tripolion or Teucrion, thrise a day changing the colour of his flowers, and my indeuoring to sende out scalding sighes deeply set from the bottome of my hart, she did temper and mitigate the same with hir sweete and friendly regards, pacifieng the rage of my oppressing passions, so as notwithstanding my burning minde in these continuall flames and sharpe prouocations of loue, I was aduised patiently to hope euen with the bird of Arabia in hir sweet nest of small sprigs, kindled by the heate of the sunne to be renewed."

HYPNEROTOMACHIA